AuthorTopic: INSTITUTIONAL DENIAL ABOUT THE DARK SIDE OF LAW SCHOOL (Read 118010 times)

I dont know if I am the only one here with this opinion. I try to take it with a grain of salt. Honestly, I cant think of another profession I want to be in, but as I prepare for finals, and I just took one; I find myself feelings "I have prepared to the utmost of my ability, and that is the most I can do. I killed myself last semester, and I got the grades that I did, right in the middle more or less, based on the fact that I spent so much time upset.

I do this to relaxx, maybe itll help yall:

at least 1 weekend a month, go out and have a good time with a friend... it doesnt need to be someone from the law school.

Dont avoid work until the last minute

talk to your teachers.

I may get flamed for that... but its what works for me... and whatever will happen will be it.

After graduating with a degree in Food Communications, I worked as a cookbook editor and a home economist. I knew cookies and calories, not courts and cases. The hours of reading, the Socratic method and indecipherable judicial decisions had my head spinning. Overwhelmed? I skipped that step and went straight to terrified.

But about a month into school, I finally found a guide that brought everything into focus. No, it wasn't Emanuel or Gilbert. It was Harry Potter. The similarities to my own situation struck me immediately as I watched. In the movie — no time for books this semester — Harry goes off to Hogwartz, a wizardry school. Everything he encounters is strange and different. The things he needs to learn seem to have no connection to the outside world. This was my initial reaction to law school.

Harry has classes in potions and sorcery; I learn the black arts of torts and contracts. He studies spellbooks; I study casebooks. An evil teacher skulks around Harry's school; the seemingly evil Socratic method lurks in my classes.

Alas, no magic wand can get me out of trouble when I haven't done the reading for Criminal Law, but Harry Potter's experience made me reevaluate my reaction to law school. Thinking of law school as an adventure, a road to travel to get to my goals rather than as a prison sentence, has lifted my fatigue and anxiety.

I remember it so well when I started law school how each and every day when I'd get out of the building I'd feel like I had returned to life again and how I wanted to kiss each and everyone on the train, on the street, it was just like everybody was a good person that deserved to be kissed ... I had never ever felt like that before, it was just like even the-black-dude-clearly-and-unequivocally-a-thug was a good person -- that is how disgusting, despicable was everyone inside that building where I had chosen to spend three years of my life!

I can understand the "need" for grading on a curve on the part of law schools ... I mean, it makes sense for the law school as a financial institution. Not to mention that law schools are expected by employers to rate the meat and impose a kind of slightly paranoid mindset that is very receptive to structural authority/hierarchy. But even the law schools themselves can not pretend the current system of grading represent a "fair" way of measuring the student's knowledge of their courses' content against a neutral baseline. And I'm not particularly interested in offering arguments to justify this or in helping the law schools make more money

The curve encourages laziness in both professors and students. I hope that our professors, if faced with a brilliant class that "got" more of the material relative to other years or relative to an absolute scale would feel a deep and abiding sense of shame at handing out the exact same percentage of grades year after year. Unfortunately, I think none of them, even the self-styled radicals, will do anything about it.

Being smart and successful in law is possible only for those armed with the "kill or be killed" mentality. Competition is inevitable, but in a cutthroat world that rewards street smarts and cunning — along with good connections and unlimited funds — conquering enemies is the necessary ingredient for true success. You want to know "everything-you-wanted-to-learn-in-law-school-but-didn't"? If you want to be a rule maker, then you must know the rules, which include be bold, don't sleep and be prepared to settle. It's not always pretty and it's certainly never fair, but the sooner one accepts the reality of this cold, hard business world, the sooner the competition will seem less threatening if not entirely inconsequential. Nice guys rarely finish first. Men and women who go to law school to learn how the system works so they can make the world a better place are fooling themselves and are likely not headed for super-success. Understanding how people, companies and laws really work — the "sophistication in litigation" — is what separates the winners from the losers.

Being smart and successful in law is possible only for those armed with the "kill or be killed" mentality. Competition is inevitable, but in a cutthroat world that rewards street smarts and cunning — along with good connections and unlimited funds — conquering enemies is the necessary ingredient for true success. You want to know "everything-you-wanted-to-learn-in-law-school-but-didn't"? If you want to be a rule maker, then you must know the rules, which include be bold, don't sleep and be prepared to settle. It's not always pretty and it's certainly never fair, but the sooner one accepts the reality of this cold, hard business world, the sooner the competition will seem less threatening if not entirely inconsequential. Nice guys rarely finish first. Men and women who go to law school to learn how the system works so they can make the world a better place are fooling themselves and are likely not headed for super-success. Understanding how people, companies and laws really work — the "sophistication in litigation" — is what separates the winners from the losers.

Being smart and successful in law is possible only for those armed with the "kill or be killed" mentality. Competition is inevitable, but in a cutthroat world that rewards street smarts and cunning — along with good connections and unlimited funds — conquering enemies is the necessary ingredient for true success. You want to know "everything-you-wanted-to-learn-in-law-school-but-didn't"? If you want to be a rule maker, then you must know the rules, which include be bold, don't sleep and be prepared to settle. It's not always pretty and it's certainly never fair, but the sooner one accepts the reality of this cold, hard business world, the sooner the competition will seem less threatening if not entirely inconsequential. Nice guys rarely finish first. Men and women who go to law school to learn how the system works so they can make the world a better place are fooling themselves and are likely not headed for super-success. Understanding how people, companies and laws really work — the "sophistication in litigation" — is what separates the winners from the losers.

This bozo sounds like a law professor .. well, I guess he found what he's looking for!

Being smart and successful in law is possible only for those armed with the "kill or be killed" mentality. Competition is inevitable, but in a cutthroat world that rewards street smarts and cunning — along with good connections and unlimited funds — conquering enemies is the necessary ingredient for true success. You want to know "everything-you-wanted-to-learn-in-law-school-but-didn't"? If you want to be a rule maker, then you must know the rules, which include be bold, don't sleep and be prepared to settle. It's not always pretty and it's certainly never fair, but the sooner one accepts the reality of this cold, hard business world, the sooner the competition will seem less threatening if not entirely inconsequential. Nice guys rarely finish first. Men and women who go to law school to learn how the system works so they can make the world a better place are fooling themselves and are likely not headed for super-success. Understanding how people, companies and laws really work — the "sophistication in litigation" — is what separates the winners from the losers.

This bozo sounds like a law professor .. well, I guess he found what he's looking for!